Learning Objectives

Writing Learning Objectives

Learning objectives are at the center of the learning experience, much like the sun is at the center of the universe. Many people mistakenly place the content at the center much like scientists formerly placed the earth at the center of the solar system.

Learning objectives should answer the following questions:

what action will the students will do

under what condition must the students perform (what materials or under
what constraints the students will perform the action)

to what standard must the student perform action

An example of this type of objective might be:

Given a week-long unit on the water cycle, students will
be able define the phases of the cycleflawlessly.

Objective tips:

the objective should always state what the student will do (not what the instructor will do)

objectives should state behaviors, not classroom activities

objectives should be measurable (saying "students will understand..." is not a good objective as it is not measurable)

Table of Specifications

So, how do we get our assessment questions to correlate
with our classroom objectives? One way is to use a Table of Specifications.
I use a Table of Specifications that incorporates Bloom's Revised
Taxonomy of Higher-Level Thinking. It looks something like this:

Remember

Understand

Apply

Analyze

Evaluate

Create

Objective 1

Objective 2

Objective 3

etc.

Fill in the objectives on the left and then complete
the table with the question numbers from the assessment that fulfill those
objectives. For example:

Remember

Understand

Apply

Analyze

Evaluate

Create

Define phases of the water cycle

#1, 2, 3

Identify variables affecting the water cycle

#4, 5

Find examples of the water cycle

#6

etc.

Match the questions to the levels of Bloom's taxonomy
by examining the verbs used in the questions. For example, questions with
verbs like define or recognize would definitely be "Remember"
questions, whereas questions with verbs like organize or determine
why would be "Analyze" questions. (See the Revised
Taxonomy). Reviewing an entire test in this manner would ensure content validity - or in other words, ensure that
the questions on the test matched the content taught in class. Also, it is a time to checking to make sure that the questions cover more than factual recall.